superstorm seaped shut down the subway system and stock exchange and the presidential election campaigning. it has been a shock to a country built on a belief in man's destiny to create a better world, but there are limits. mark was in the united states to see the devastation firsthand. >> welcome to hoboken, a poor city on the new jersey side of the hudson. places like this felt the worst of it and by the time we got there the water had already fallen by four feet. on the heights above power lines had been brought down across the street, bringing life to a halt. >> nobody was ready for this. this has never happened before, ever. i mean, it was devastating. all over. i have a house down the jersey shore that's underwater, they tell me. >> it's the jersey coast that took the worst battering. here the epicenter of the storm hit pulling buildings apart and sweeping the beach right over the community. >> the waves are coming, hitting on an angle from the south and just breaking over the seawall, pouring into the houses up front here and then into the streets. so i stayed up on the top, watched